How to Love Animals
- Author Henry Mance
- Narrator Henry Mance
- Publisher Random House
- Run Time 12 hours and 14 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Animals and society, Business ethics and social responsibility, Dairy farming, Environmentalist thought and ideology, Environmentalist, conservationist and Green organizations, Ethology and animal behaviour, Farm and working animals: general interest, Pollution and threats to the environment, Self-sufficiency and ‘green’ lifestyle, Social and ethical issues, Social groups: alternative lifestyles, Social impact of environmental issues, Sociology and anthropology.
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
We love animals, but our relationship with them is laced with self-doubt. We watch nature documentaries and cat videos, and pamper our pets. Yet we also know that most farm animals lead miserable lives and many wild animals are losing their homes. We reluctantly accept this as the price for human progress; no one wants a philosophical debate every time they buy a sandwich. The truth is that the way we treat animals is not only irrational and unethical – it’s unsustainable.
Henry Mance sets out on a personal quest to see if there is a fairer way to share our planet with the other species who enrich our lives. He goes to work in an abattoir and on a pig farm, and meets chefs, hunters, activists, scientists and conservationists who want to redefine how we think about animals.
Even on a planet shaped by human activity, we can find the space to allow other sentient beings to thrive – to put our love for animals into practice. This is not a book about what animals can do for us, but what we can do for animals. Thoughtful, provocative and witty, it is ultimately a story of discovery and hope – and of a future that might just become a reality.
© Henry Mance 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Critics Review
Written with humour and humanity, Mance’s argument is both convincing and urgent: we need to make dramatic changes to our lifestyle if we want to prevent ecological catastrophe.
GuardianThis fascinating book makes a persuasive, sanctimony-free case for treating animals more humanely.
The TimesHow to Love Animals is compassionate, funny and utterly readable. What’s more, Mance does something of enormous value: he surprises himself and the reader, too… In marrying this openness with his clarity of vision, Mance offers a new window on the climate emergency.
i NewspaperPersuasive…wry and on occasion laugh-out-loud funny. Like all the best reporters, Mance possesses an open mind and a strong moral compass, he’s thorough and game for anything and he’s good at drawing people out… After reading this thoughtful and galvanising book, I’ve realised that it’s better to keep trying to live in a way that shows compassion and respect for animals, and to sometimes fail, than to give up altogether.
New StatesmanThrough vivid reporting and conversations with abattoir workers, activists, chefs and conservationists, Mance exposes the awful way we treat the creatures we so often profess to love.
Financial Times, *Books of the Year*
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